PTMHOFF makes progress towards “virtual museum”

The PTMHOFF established revised goals in 2011 after an arrangement for housing a physical museum fell through. A significant part of 2012 was spent in pursuing Phase 1 of the new plan:

Phase I: Create a “virtual” museum and Hall of Fame with the first step being a dramatic upgrade to original web site. The revised site would have three features – an illustrated history of the game, a completely new look and feel for the Hall of Fame with extensive biographies, and a “Search and Explore” section which would house all of the memorabilia collected in digital formats and allow visitors to browse the artifacts by various search keys (by name, for instance).

This phase which is the foundation and heart of the revised mission, was now about 75% complete with the collection and digitization of artifacts, the development of the illustrated time-line history and the revised and expanded Hall of Fame sections essentially complete.

The collection and digitization of historical artifacts was a much bigger undertaking than originally anticipated and our collection now included almost all APTA newsletters (1969-2012), APTA historical documents (annual meeting minutes, correspondence, etc.) many magazine and newspaper articles, photographs, film footage going back to 1962, and much more. This material has been extensively used to create the illustrated time-line history and upgrade the biographies of Hall of Fame members.

The big remaining step was the complete the Search and Explore segment.

All of this had taken considerable effort and resources and would not have been possible without the support of the “paddle community”